Jesse Scheckner
Former Sen. Daphne Campbell is continuing her quest to regain elected office, this time with a run to succeed term-limited Rep. Dotie Joseph in House District 108.
Campbell, who served three terms in the House before winning a two-year term in the Senate, filed paperwork April 11 to run for HD 108.
So far, she faces one fellow Democrat, Dinah Escarment, a radio host and tax, immigration and real estate services executive who also serves as a State Committeewoman for the party.
Campbell, 67, has repeatedly run to win office since she lost her Senate re-election race to now-Sen. Jason Pizzo in 2018.
She challenged Pizzo the next cycle before refocusing her efforts on a different, open Senate seat. But she lost badly to the ultimate winner, Shevrin Jones. in 2021, she again filed to challenge Pizzo in Senate District 38, but that bid fizzled out before Election Day.
Most recently, Campbell ran unseat North Miami Mayor Alix Desulme. She placed third in a four-way race that Desulme, whom Campbell bested twice for her House seat in 2010 and 2012, won in a December 2024 runoff.
Campbell’s entry into the 2026 contest for HD 108 ensures it’ll be an interesting one, as she’s been an attention magnet over the years — and not always for positive reasons.
As a House lawmaker, Campbell — a registered nurse — passed legislation changing what evidence is admissible in medical malpractice lawsuits; expanding physical therapy treatment plans; cracking down on public-school cyberbullying; shielding police families from public records requests; preempting local governments on vacation rental regulations; creating a more stringent process for rehabilitating sexually violent predators; and requiring all U.S. flags used by Florida governments to be American-made.
She was not nearly as effective in the Senate, where over two Regular Sessions and a Special Session she passed only resolutions recognizing cities, people and awareness efforts, and a bill to rename roads.
Despite her successful legislative work in the House, Campbell is better known for using her office for personal gain, siccing cops on reporters and her questionable adherence to residency requirements, campaign bookkeeping laws and support for legislation with which she had conflicts of interest.
In 2011, Campbell cosponsored legislation to block public disclosures of dangerous group homes. She and her husband previously operated a group home business, but the location closed following the death of three patients, the rape of another and poor living conditions others endured that prompted the state to pull its funding.
Two years later, after her husband caught five red light camera violations, Campbell filed legislation to ban their use. She denied knowing about her husband’s tickets.
By 2016, she’d had 10 foreclosures filed against property she owned.
After Hurricane Irma struck in 2017, Campbell made headlines after it was revealed that she called a Florida Power & Light lobbyist to get the lights turned back on at her home and the homes of family members. She sought the special treatment ostensibly to help her “sick mom,” except her mother had died 20 years before.
During a very eventful 2018, she twice called police on Miami Herald reporters, on one occasion saying a reporter threatened her. The cops found no evidence to support the claim. Video footage caught Campbell receiving a Kate Spade purse during her 60th birthday party from a man who shoved a wad of cash inside. Campbell did not report the money and claimed the video had been edited.
Reports showed Campbell moved multiple times over the years, at times outside the boundaries of her district.
In 2019, Farm Share canceled a food distribution event after Campbell posted an altered version of a poster for the event on Facebook indicating the event was associated with her campaign. Farm Share, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, is prohibited from any political campaign activity.
Campbell also became embroiled in a legal battle with her former Campaign Manager before falsely asserting that she’s “never” been party to a civil lawsuit — by mid-2020, she’d been named in 10 — and drew a 2021 complaint from the Florida Commission on Ethics for fudging her financial reports.
Notably, Campbell’s filings for HD 108 show she is serving as her own campaign Treasurer. She has not yet updated her campaign website, which still shows her as running for North Miami Mayor.
The site says she has been “instrumental for over $4 billion in appropriations” as a state lawmaker.
Campbell appeared to take a break from running for office after the fatal shooting of her son in 2021. Her friends and family said at the time that they were launching an initiative to reduce gun violence.
HD 108, which covers a strip of northeast Miami-Dade County, including all of Biscayne Park, El Portal and Miami Shores Village, and portions of North Miami and Miami, including parts of Little Haiti and Wynwood.
The 22-square-mile district is dependably Democratic, majority Black, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and includes a significant portion of South Florida’s residents of Haitian descent.
Joseph has represented HD 108 since 2018, when she won her seat with 92% of the vote.
The 2026 Primary Election is on Aug. 18, followed by the General Election Nov. 3.
Florida Politics contacted Campbell for comment but did not receive a response by press time.
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Ryan Nicol of Florida Politics contributed to this report.
One comment
SuzyQ
May 5, 2025 at 3:06 pm
The revolving door, as it were.